Gu Jianlin had plenty of thoughts. Peak City Second High was the best school in town, but honestly, the rules weren't all that strict.
You could date, curl and dye your hair, wear makeup and skirts—no one really cared.
As long as your grades were good.
Only students like Youzhu, who got in through artistic merit and stayed at the bottom of the grade rankings, would have their parents called in.
"What exactly are you here for?"
Gu Jianlin couldn't help asking, "Is something about to happen?"
Lu Zicheng raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know?"
Gu Jianlin scanned the surroundings, his pupils gleaming.
He muttered under his breath, voice low: "Just on this floor alone, I've spotted nine people disguised as students. If I'm not mistaken, they're all with the association, right? Your people?"
Lu Zicheng was shocked. He had no idea how the kid figured it out and hurriedly whispered, "Shh, don't look at them. They're part of the association, but not mine. They don't know I'm at this school, so don't alarm them."
Gu Jianlin was stunned. "What's going on?"
Lu Zicheng stayed silent momentarily. "Don't ask. Just focus on your studies. How's your spirituality accumulation coming along?"
Gu Jianlin hesitated for a second. "Twenty-five percent."
Lu Zicheng frowned and assessed, "Three vials of reagent for this? Your absorption efficiency isn't great. Once this mission to hunt the Joker is over, you should be able to earn some merit, and then you can use those points to exchange for more Spiritual Secret Medicine."
Gu Jianlin sniffed out something suspicious at this point. "The Joker? You're hunting the Joker?"
Lu Zicheng scoffed. "Something like that."
But Gu Jianlin couldn't help saying, "Isn't that my mission?"
"I already told you. Deep Space botched this. The Joker isn't someone you can kill."
Lu Zicheng spoke in a low voice, "You've seen the Joker's dossier. He's on the First Order Magician path, and he's a Fallen. But he's no Li Changzhi, the one you took out. This guy's mastered every skill available at this stage and holds onto two Mythical Weapons. We still don't know what those two weapons do. You think you can handle him?"
"Anyway, the moment you feel danger, notify me immediately. I won't leave the school in the near future."
He patted the boy's shoulder. "Take care of yourself."
And with that, he turned and left, disappearing into the crowd.
Gu Jianlin stood there in silence for a long time, sensing that something felt off about the whole situation.
He had indeed read up on the Joker.
The Joker was reportedly one of the survivors of the Blood Moon Slaughter Incident, contaminated while exploring the Qilin Immortal Palace, and narrowly escaped death.
Just like Li Changzhi.
Which meant that guy might also come back for revenge.
He might even think Gu Jianlin had something left behind by his father.
Perhaps that's why Deep Space assigned him this mission.
Because Gu Jianlin didn't need to scour the globe searching for the target—the target would come to him.
"But then, why say Deep Space botched it?"
Gu Jianlin couldn't figure it out and walked out of the school building.
For most male high school students, aside from decent teachers, two things mattered most about a school:
One, were there lots of beauties?
Two, was the cafeteria food good?
Peak City Second High was notoriously terrible in the food department.
So much so that after evening self-study sessions, everyone rushed to the snack street near the gate before curfew.
As for the cafeteria? Not even dogs went there.
One standout memory for Gu Jianlin was the time he heard the cafeteria was serving seafood, including hairy crabs.
That day, he even lined up for ages, only to get served a single crab the size of his palm.
Small was small, but it was better than nothing.
Until his chopsticks were snapped at by its pincers...
Gu Jianlin planned to hit the snack street for some food and grab a bite for his cheap little sister while he was at it.
But then, at a bench by the school gate, he saw a familiar figure curled up there.
Her short hair swayed in the wind, her shoulders were thin, and her posture exuded loneliness.
"Why're you sitting here?"
Gu Jianlin walked over, suspicious, and asked.
Su Youzhu raised her head, showing a pale face devoid of color.
Gu Jianlin saw her expression and understood immediately.
"Your period started?"
Su Youzhu kept her pretty face stern and nodded faintly.
"You stay up every night, your schedule's all over the place—of course it's gonna hurt."
Gu Jianlin shook his head and pulled a thermos cup from his bag, handing it to her. "Brown sugar water."
Su Youzhu blinked in surprise. "Where'd this come from?"
Gu Jianlin explained, "Made it in advance at home."
Su Youzhu hesitated once more. "For... me?"
Gu Jianlin nodded firmly.
He had been taking care of her for a while now; it wasn't sustainable. Fortunately, using Life Perception last night, he had found out her period was coming and prepared ahead of time.
Su Youzhu was stunned. At the time, her period hadn't started yet, but the brown sugar water had somehow been prepped in advance.
Which left only one possibility.
—This boy knew her cycle.
Gu Jianlin noticed her gaze grew oddly peculiar, with an indescribable undertone.
Su Youzhu seemed to ponder, then suddenly said expressionlessly, "You didn't use that thing, realize that real-life experiences were still better, and now decide to butter me up, did you?"